In U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,086 issued May 15, 1990 to Harold E. Stahlman, there is disclosed a so-called "response letter". The response letter includes a letterhead-like section including a die cut window near the upper edge. A partial panel extending to one side of the letterhead is folded over and adhered to the back of the letterhead in such a way as to form a pocket behind the die cut window. Thereafter, a mechanical inserter inserts a card into the pocket such that some desired piece of information, such as a name and address or the like, appear through the die cut window.
The letterhead may then be folded with the insert within the pocket and stuffed in an envelope and mailed to the desired recipient. Upon opening the envelope, the recipient may remove the letterhead and read its contents. The insert may be removed from the pocket and utilized as a means of responding to the message contained on the letterhead.
A business form of this type, while susceptible to many desirable uses in connection with promotions of one or another, is not without several difficulties. For one, because the projecting panel must be folded over the back of the letterhead and is only about one third the size of the letterhead, the blank of which the letterhead and panel is formed is irregularly shaped. Consequently, to form the blank, approximately one third of the paper required for each blank must be discarded at a considerable cost.
Secondly, in the specific construction of the Stahlman patent, the insert is physically inserted into the already formed pocket. If this operation is not accomplished properly, there is the possibility of jamming, a factor that does not lend itself to high speed production. Alternatively, there may be wrinkling of the insert. In the case of the latter, the recipient receives a mailing piece of less than top quality which in turn may bear upon the degree of interest the recipient exercises with respect thereto. In the case of the former, that is, jamming, because many of the inserts may receive so-called variable information which is unique to an individual insert and none others, the jamming or partial or entire destruction of an insert destroys a unique piece of correspondence which can only be regenerated by slipping out of an automated printing sequence to recapture computer information that has already been once processed.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the above problems.